Home again: First Indiana bald eagle nest in more than a century

Birds building home at Potato Creek State Park

Perched high in the air on a former osprey nest, the symbol of patriotism didn’t make a sound, even as its message seemed to echo across the wetlands of Potato Creek State Park: Look who’s back.

Back, as in the first (possibly, hopefully) breeding pair of bald eagles in St. Joseph County in at least a century.

Back, in a much more broader sense, from the brink of extinction less than 50 years ago, when pesticides such as DDT continued to wreak havoc on the eggshells of eagles and other large birds.

Tim Cordell, the state park’s naturalist, said the sight of a bald eagle pair last week building a nest in the park has caused quite a stir from visitors, who have posted the birds’ pictures on social media.

Although bald eagles are not rare in Indiana – migrating birds are frequently spot-ted in fall, winter and spring as they hunt waterfowl along the St. Joseph River – a nesting pair is a new phe-nomenon.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, biologists reintroduced bald eagles to southern Indiana, where the birds established nesting sites near the large reservoirs of the White and Wabash rivers.

Since then, the eagles have been slowly expanding their range, as new nesting pairs looked to avoid competing for resources.

“We had a pair a couple years ago that stayed around the park for about six weeks,” Cordell said, “and people got pretty excited about it.”

Last week, bird-watchers in Lake County reported finding bald eagles building a nest site in the Indiana Dunes, the eagle’s first nesting attempt on the southern shore of Lake Michigan in more than a century.

Bald eagles were once common throughout much of the United States — and gained popularity as a national symbol in 1782, when the Continental Congress used the bird in the national seal — but habitat loss, hunting and environmental factors such as the use of DDT, which caused the thinning of eggshells, hastened the bird’s decline.

It’s generally believed the last breeding bald eagle pair in Indiana disappeared from the state in 1897.

In the 1950s, one report showed only 412 breeding pairs were left in the lower 48 states, leading the bird to ultimately be protected by the Endangered Species Act.

In 2007, after decades of conservation efforts and protections, the bird was removed from the endangered species list, thanks to a robust recovery that continues to this day.

Cordell said the birds at Potato Creek are likely a young couple, possibly building their first nest together.

Like many young couples, instead of building their first home, Cordell said the eagles have settled into a nest that was built by an osprey, a smaller bird of prey that primarily eats fish.

Last year, Cordell said, the park supported four different osprey pairs, which makes him believe the park’s lake has enough fish to support a family of bald eagles — if the young couple are lucky enough to reproduce this year.

“A lot of pairs are unsuccessful their first year,” Cor-dell said.But since bald eagles can live 20 years or more, and tend to mate for life, a suc-cessful pair is likely to con-tinue nesting at the park in future years.

Although the birds have already drawn many visitors to the park — directions to the viewing area can be found at the gatehouse — Cordell said bird-watchers must keep their distance and only park in assigned parking spaces, not alongside the road.

Harassing a bald eagle, including its nest site, Cordell said, is against federal law and carries a hefty fine.

Cordell said park staff will continue to monitor the eagles throughout the spring, although the nest site will likely be blocked from view once the leaves return this spring.

If the mating pair does lay eggs, the incubation period is about 35 days, followed by another month before the new eaglets will be large enough to be seen outside the nest. A few more months would then pass before the new eagles could learn how to fly.

“It’s very exciting,” Cordell said. “It’s a pretty big deal.”

More than a century after they disappeared, maybe sometime this summer, a bald eagle born in St. Joseph County could be seen soaring again.